Creating a blog is time-consuming. There is research, writing, editing… editing again. If you don’t have a blog already, or if the one you do have is languishing in the dusty depths of your website, you might be wondering if it is worth the effort. You might be telling yourself that ‘sure a blog would be good, but wouldn’t my time be better spent chasing leads, closing sales, or networking’?
Here are our top four reasons why your business needs a blog:
It is great for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)
This is the biggie. Helping Google to prioritise your site is probably the main motivation behind many companies’ blogs. After all, your clients can only find you if Google can.
So how does this work? A blog boosts your ranking in the following ways:
- Blogging means regularly updating your site – signalling to Google that the site is alive and relevant. Google loves up-to-date info and keeping your site up-to-date will give your page ranking a boost.
- It gives you loads of opportunities to add in keywords – those terms you want Google to associate with your site.
- It attracts users to your site and keeps them on it for longer. While this isn’t an exact science, the time your users spend on your page can improve your ranking.
It helps you with social media
Well-written and relevant posts are excellent for driving engagement. Blogs can provide you with some great material for social media posts. If written well, they can be very shareable and are a great way to draw attention to your brand.
It lets you share with your clients (and maybe show off a little bit too)
Website copy should be concise. Your users should only need to read the bare minimum to understand you and what you can offer them. But sometimes you want to showcase your achievements – to highlight those projects that went well, and that is where blogs excel. These are a perfect place for those ‘before and after’ case studies, your thoughts on the challenges facing your industry, or the reasons why you think a particular tool or design style is the best.
It allows you to show your personality
Blogs allow you to get a little more creative than in your website copy. You should stick to the same overall style and tone of voice as the rest of your content, but readers often expect blogs to be more fun or informal.
You can use your blog to give clients an insight into your team. Ideally, these posts should still be relevant to your business, so for example a company targeting a local area could have ‘our teams favourite local events/beer/coffee shops etc’ or if you sell products you could ask each team member to pick their favourite giving a little bit of personal information alongside it.
Professional doesn’t mean aloof and the biggest asset for most companies are the people that work there – so why not using your blog to showcase your talented team.
